New Scientist: Cold Fusion is Back

Thanks to all who have mentioned a new article by Michael Brooks published in the New Scientist magazine titled “Cold Fusion: Science’s Most Controversial Technology is Back” The subheading reads: “The claim to have tamed the sun in the lab was debunked 25 years ago. So why are governments and investors now pouring money into it again?”

I think Brooks has done a commendable job in this article in reaching out to a wide variety of sources in the article, and describes a field that is attracting the attention of serious researchers, despite the tainted reputation of cold fusion. He mentions the ongoing legal dispute between Rossi and Industrial Heat, but looks at other developments in the LENR field as well.

Graham Hubler of the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance at the University of Missouri: “We’re convinced there’s some sort of energy source here … I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t feel that way.”

David Nagel of LENRIA: “The results are out there, and people are ignoring them.”

Joseph Zawodny at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia says that research is to validate the claims via independent replications and a testable theory, but the ongoing controversy surrounding Rossi’s E-Cat is making funding hard to secure

Woodford Investment Mangagement admits that LENR is a high-risk area, but they state: “the evidence we have seen to date, coupled with the potential market opportunity, suggests to us that it is an area that is worthy of further investigation.”

The author says also that the report on LENR that the US House of Representatives requested from the Secretary of Defense will be delayed.